Excessive Water in Bilge

[NeilM]

I'm looking for ideas:

After a half-day on the water, I've got a bilge so full of water, the bilge pump is running frequently.

so far:
- I dried the boat out completely on the trailer, then filled all of the ballast tanks overfull, then checked for leaks overnight. Bilge was dry.
- I had water coming through the propshaft packing gland, so I spent $1000 having the dealer lift the engine to install a dripless shaft seal - no better.
- I attached a garden hose to the flushpro and ran the engine - no visible leaks.

- At the dock, I've looked for obvious leaks from around the Perfect Pass, the engine raw water intake, and the ballast raw water intake - none visible.

Ideas, anyone?

[east tx skier]

Hi Neil,

My father-in-law has this problem with his boat. We found the leak where the muffler connects to the exhaust pipe. Typically, this can be fixed with a little bondo and fiberglass matt. When we lifted the access plate in the floor, it became pretty obvious pretty quick where the leak was (this was sitting the water with the engine off).

[jkski]

Don't take this the wrong way, they are just suggestions:
1) Do you have a lot of people getting in and out of your boat soaking wet...it adds up in a hurry and all ends up in the bilge.
2) Do you have 1 or 2 drain plugs. Check both of them to be sure they are tight.
3) Do you have a heater or shower on the boat? If so, check the connections while running, and especially check the heater core to make sure it has not sprung a leak.
4) You said you checked the ballast bags, however, I seem to remember a friend of mine that has an X10 constantly leaking water from the fitting on the center ballast bag. It was somewhat had to detect, but it was the cause of a lot of water.
5) Check your rub rail. Prior to seeing the light, I owned another brand of inboard ski boat, and I found it leaked water in around the bow area where the top deck and hull were put together.

Good luck.

[NeilM]

Doug,
I will check the exhaust - great idea. In my case, it may be higher up, because it's not leaking at the dock..

Jski:
1. nowhere near that amount of people in/out of boat;
2. Both drain plugs are tight
3. Heater core is new last year (I froze it the winter before), and tested... I haven't tested the shower, though -- good idea.
4. My son is voting on the ballast system too... I'll do more testing.
5. Dealer says "no way it's the rubrail -- too much water in too short a time".

I'll have a serious look this weekend..

Thanks guys.

[Leroy]

Sorry to hear this Neil, I guess you can open it up and look below. At that rate you should see a small stream coming in. If you don't see anything sitting Doug's suggestion sounds even more likely.

[jbrooks86]

Neil,

As Doug said the exhaust can be the cause when under way and not leak with sitting with the engine off or at idle. Mine did the exact same thing. Turns out the clamps on the exhaust tubes were not tight and it ran in big time when the rpms came up. Hope you find it.

Joe

[craig3972]

06 xstar with leak

i have a leak that is difficult to find as well... mine only seems to occur when the boat is loaded down. ( all ballasts full, 6 people in the boat)

Thought it may be coming in thru the ladder compartment in the front when we turn back into our wave set to get a fallen rider.

notice that the rudder leaks a small amount, but not the amount that would collect between a riders falls - bilge pump runs a steady stream for about 6 to 7 seconds, after the boat levels out

Any thoughts?

[cst573]

Just a suggestion,
Check around your rudder port.

[jkski]

Depending on the boat you are running, you may be getting water rushing in your rear vents. I had this problem with my PS197 when it was loaded down with 2 fat sacs. When I'd pull the throttle back to turn back for a fallen rider, the stern wave would roll right up and go down the vents. This may not be your problem, but one quick way to tell, is to weight your boat down as you normally would when the problem occurs, and simply have someone keep an eye on the vents when you stop to see if water doesn't go in.
Good luck.

[Lennyp04]

We just picked up our X-1 and noticed that the auto bildge was coming on often and there was a lot of water in the middle compartment of the floor. We had the mechanic come to the house and he opened up the one floor opening and found that the t drain plug in the center was out abot a quarter to half inch. It either vibrated loose or was never tigtened all the way. It could have been very bad if we didnt check it.

Good luck with your problem though. Check all your thru hull openings

[NeilM]

overlooking the obvious ....

Well guys, I just got back from three weeks at Beyond Hope, Idaho, and I finally found my "leak".

For the first 2 days on the water, the bilge stayed bone dry (I had a dripless shaft seal installed last winter as part of my search for the elusive leak).

The next day, I had gallons in the bilge.

Only thing different: we didn't wakesurf for the first 2 days.

So, here it is: (geez, I feel like I need a drum roll, this has been so elusive):
When the boat is ploughing water for wakesurfing, the outlet for the bilge pump is under water. Since there is no one-way valve on the bilge pump line, the water flows IN that outlet and floods the bilge until there is enough water for the float switch to eject it (which still leaves gallons in the bilge).

... so now, I have to find a one-way valve for the bilge pump hose..

In the words of Homer Simpson: DOH!

[east tx skier]

Glad you found your leak, Neil. Sorry that involved a lot of expense trouble shooting other areas.

[wesgardner]

Mine leaked fairly steadily from the rubrail back aft - steady stream at riding speed 21 mph +/- - seems at that speed water was deflected just right to hit the underside of the rail and caused a leak...

Glad you found it - use a swing-type check valve fore the least amount of restriction - http://www.plumbingsupply.com/pvccheck.html
is where I got mine..

[Married2Maristar]

Hey Neil - I love how you have all the problems I want to solve as well. Did the one way valve solve your problems? My outlet is on the starboard side ahead of the captains chair on my 210 VRS. It’s hard for me to imagine that point of the boat is low enough to take on water.

I’m sure one point of water in my case is water coming over the back into the vents, which I’ve tried to solve through better driving. I replaced the shaft packing (myself, but that was a crappy learning experience, but easy now that I know what to do) and haven’t found the sweet spot for some slow dripping or no dripping.

Did you solve the water leak?

[RxMC]

Huh??